The present invention relates to a bracelet.
The term, xe2x80x9cbraceletxe2x80x9d, when used in this specification, is not limited to a wrist bracelet but is intended to include bracelets such as ring or belt bracelets which may be worn on other parts of the body, such as the ankle, a finger or even around the waist. Furthermore, such bracelets need not be solely for human use but could be worn by animals, e.g. as collars, or, if desired, attached to inanimate objects.
A known bracelet which displays information is a digital watch, having a watch face with a liquid crystal display. Typically, the watch face has at least four conventional seven-segment numerical display elements so that the time can be displayed digitally using the standard 24 hour clock notation.
The watch will usually have additional functions such as an alarm, a stop-watch, etc. and so a solid state chip/integrated circuit is included to implement these functions together with a quartz crystal to keep time and a battery for powering the watch.
A In DE-A-3 813 409 (Osterhage) there is disclosed a wrist watch with a multi-digital display, consisting of a continuous chain of individual bracelet links, each bracelet link being constructed as a digital display, controlled by a piezoelectric control circuit which provides a multi-digit display which is pulsed from bracelet link to bracelet link so that the digital display pulses in time around the bracelet.
The present invention provides a bracelet having an electronic display unit including a display region comprising a plurality of display elements, each display element capable of displaying a character of one or more characters so that the display elements together can display said characters, in the display region; the display elements being arranged in a sequence lying along the length of the bracelet and/or in a sequence lying substantially around at least part of the perimeter of the display region; wherein control means is provided to control the display elements so that the characters displayed by the display elements in the display region appear to move along the sequence of display elements with time.
In one embodiment, the bracelet has a single display unit extending along a portion of the length of the bracelet.
Preferably, the single unit has a plurality of display elements each comprising a lattice of liquid crystal or LED segments. The liquid crystal or LED segments may be selectively energised to display one of a plurality of different characters. Preferably, the liquid crystal or LED segments are arranged, and may be selectively energised, to display numerical and/or alphabetical characters.
However, it will be appreciated that abstract characters and shapes could be formed by the display elements to give the appearance of a moving pattern.
The control means may be a solid state chip/integrated circuit which can control the display elements to display information in the form of characters. The solid state chip may control the display elements so that the characters displayed appear to move along the sequence of display elements in the display region, element by element, with time.
The display region can be divided into a plurality of sub-regions each comprising a plurality of display elements forming a portion of the sequence of display elements. It is then possible for the display elements to display information simultaneously within each sub-region and the control means may control the display elements such that the information displayed in each sub-region appears to move, preferably element by element, from a first end of said respective portion of said sequence of display elements to a second end of said respective portion of said sequence of display elements with time.
In another embodiment, the bracelet comprises a plurality of electronic display units each having a predetermined number of display elements. The display elements of the display units together form a display region, each display element being capable of displaying a character of one or more characters so that the display elements together can display information, in the form of said characters, in the display region. The display units are arranged so that collectively their display elements form a sequence lying along the length of the bracelet. The display units are preferably arranged in groups of at least three adjacent units, each group forming a sub-region of said display region so that the display elements can display information simultaneously within each sub-region. Control means is provided to control the display elements to display characters such that the characters are displayed in each group of display units, firstly, in the first unit of the group of display units, secondly in the second unit of the group of display units and thirdly in a third unit of the group of display units so that the characters appear to move, within the sub-region of said display region, with time.
Further preferred and advantageous features of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and accompanying claims.